In my previous blog I briefly speculated where the long-time Cub would land. I had mentioned Texas since he idolized Nolan Ryan. Guess I was wrong there, but I did know he lives in Arizona so part of me had hoped he would sign with the Diamondbacks. Then I could actually cheer for the hometown team and look forward to seeing him pitch just as much as usual. But I couldn’t have been more thrilled to hear my second favorite team in baseball signed Woody. My mom was born in Ohio and I view it as my second-city for sports teams. 

The 97′ Cleveland Indians remains one of my favorite groups of guys ever assembled. I remember always picking them when I played All-Star Baseball 1998, one of the best baseball games of all time may I add. Now besides him playing for my second-city, my Dad brought up a point I hadn’t even considered; He’ll be playing in the same division as the White Sox! Kerry now has several opportunity to close out the South Siders and make them look silly which gives me great satisfaction.

Still the though of him being on any team but the Cubs still sounds wrong to me. And picturing him wearing another jersey is so impossible, I customized an Indians jersey just to see what his jersey would look like (That is if the legendary Juan Rincon gives up his number for the legend.) Nothing compared to the blue pinstripes, but I’ll take it.

On Monday I learned of a sports headline that didn’t seem to gain much attention and I believe that’s due to the character of this individual. Future Hall of Fame pitcher, Greg Maddux, announced his retirement.  He finishes eighth on the all-time list with 355 major league wins.. one more than the cheating Roger Clemens. So why did this legend leaving the game not cause quite a stir?

Sure he’s 42, but you’re expected to be old when you retire. When it comes down to it, Maddux just was never a flashy type of a guy and never will be. He didn’t talk about retiring for years like Brett Favre. He just did it when the time was right. Maddux had this to say…

It’s going to be hard to walk away, but it’s time. I have a family now and I need to spend more time with them.

Mad Dog was never a flashy player. He never threw a fastball quite that hard. He never caused any problems or said anything controversial to the press. Heck, he never said much at all.  He simply was accurate, smart and a professional. But when a guy wins four consecutive National League Cy Young awards, is nominated to the All-Star team eight times while collecting a record 18 Gold Gloves, somebody should notice.

Maddux started off with the Cubs and played for them for 7 seasons before management got cheap and let him become a Brave for a decade where he dominated. Luckily we got him back for a few more seasons, until we traded him to give him a chance to win. I wasn’t old enough to appreciate him during his first stint in Chicago but I cherished his second stint here. I was sad to see him go then and I’m even more sad to see him walk away from the game completely. So even though the talk around the water cooler isn’t focused on the retirement of Mad Dog, I noticed and I’ll miss him. Here’s to hoping you retire as a Cub when you’re eligible in five years.

If it wasn’t clear already that my Bulls drafted the right guy when they choose hometown kid, Derrick Rose, it is now. Andre Miller is a veteran and he should have seen all the crossovers in the world by now. However,  it’s apparent Rose is so special that his crossover gone and crossed his eyes, crossed his ankles and crossed his heart and hope to goodness that somehow the camera missed him falling flat on his behind! Besides Rose’s pure athletic ability, I love how grounded the kid is. And I can call him kid because he is only twenty for pete’s sakes. If I pulled a move like that even against a 7-year-old I would make a comment a lot different than what Derrick Rose had to say about the play…

“I just did a simple move and he fell,” Rose said. “I’ve done that before. It’s just that’s the first time it happened in a game. I just thought it was a regular play. It just naturally happened. I just wanted to score and I put myself in a situation that I could get to the basket.

“That’s how I’ve been playing my whole life. I just try to win. For those plays to happen, it just takes a will. I just wanted those plays to happen.”

The last Bulls’ jersey I bought had Jordan written across the back. But don’t think I’m fair-weathered, ever since Jordan left the Bulls my passion for the team has remained the same. However, there has yet to be a true leader or untouchable in the organization that I could idolize and brag about…until now. Looks like a Bulls jersey is on my Christmas list this year.

Jake Peavy

 Now, as you can read from previous posts, I’m all for acquiring Peavy since I know the doom and gloom associated with being a Cubs pitcher. I just know we’re going to lose Harden early to injury. His track record was bad enough before he joined the cursed blue pinstripes. And something tells me that our sixth starter, Sean Marshall, is going to packaged in a trade to Kansas City soon for a guy nobody has heard of, although I hope not. Unlike most teams that can trade a promising pitcher in their minor league system, we can’t. If our prospects are good, they are on the major league team already. Therefore, come time for a trade we’re going to have to give up this luxury depth of ours and it is going to turn into a soft spot of the team. Piniella’s quite the decorated manager, he oughta know you can never have enough pitching. You can always acquire a bullpen guy, but a guy like Jake Peavy doesn’t come around often. And with the way pitcher’s value increase millions every year, he is a steal for what you’re getting. Pull the trigger Cubbies, something tells me Peavy isn’t afraid to pitch in the big games like some of our starters proved these past two playoff series.

The Chicago Tribune recently posted a poll asking Cubs fans the following question:

The Cubs have locked up Ryan Dempster. What should they do next? Trade for Jake Peavy? Sign Randy Johnson? Sign Rafael Furcal? Acquire all of them? Acquire none of them?

This wasn’t a simple point and click kinda question for me. Some of the options to choose partly angered me. I’m fine with trading for Jake Peavy, he’s an ace. I’m a firm believer that pitching wins championships even though the Cubs bats were the reason they got swept this year. Even though our rotation is solid, in the very likely situation that Harden gets hurt, we have the best insurance possible. I just don’t think we have the talent to acquire him even though it appears we’re the only team in the running for him currently.

My brother and I support Theriot

I’d love to get Furcal for the simple fact that we need a lead-off man because Soriano should not play another second there. However, I do love our current shortshop in Ryan Theriot. Every team needs a scrappy player and he’s that guy. Plus his last name is pronounced “The Riot” so you can’t beat that. As you’ll notice from the picture to the right, my brother and I clearly support him and his sweet last name. With that said, if Furcal can be had for a reasonable price, sign him. Then we can move Riot to second and DeRosa to RF. At least then we can silence these awful rumors about the “legendary” Mark Teahan coming to Chicago. Please don’t make that move and announce it as an upgrade Jim Hendry.

Finally, Randy Johnson??? Don’t release Kerry Wood and not offer him a one-year deal for you to turn around to do it to an old man who is only good at looking like a bird and killing them. Signing all of these guys would go against the Cubs excuse of not having the money to sign Wood. Even claiming that signing Randy Johnson is a priority would be silly enough. Get Peavy, get a leadoff man, get a left-handed bat, get rid of Jason Marquis and his awful contract and win one for me already.

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After acquiring Kevin Gregg from the Marlins, the Cubs made it clear they will not resign longtime Cubs fan favorite, Kerry Wood. I knew what it meant as soon as it happened. My friend texted me all excited to have acquired a solid reliever from Florida. The fact that this guy was the closer for the Marlins made me nervous. We already had our closer in waiting in Carlos Marmol. Why would we need 3? And that’s when it became very obvious to me the Cubs would not resign a future Cub HOF. Part of me is upset and part of me gets it.

Marmol really is better than Wood, but has been so valuable to us in those 7th and 8th innings, that we really haven’t made the switch…until now. When we got swept in the playoffs it wasn’t because of our bullpen. It’s been one of the best. This offseason we have had other areas of concern. We need a power-hitting left-handed RF. We need to re-sign Dempster or acquire another starter to replace him. 

It wouldn’t of been fair to Wood to offer him that one year contract, while he could make millions more and get 3-4 more years from someone else. Besides by the time we would be able to offer him that contract, much time would have passed as we addressed our most pressing concerns. He deserves to be paid now. I just wish the Cubs could have dug into their bank account and done it out of a sign of respect. It’s not like we’re re-signing an old has-been in Randy Johnson. Okay, according to the latest rumors, maybe we are. I can only hope Wood signs with a team I like and not within our division. I know he’s a huge Nolan Ryan fan, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him wind up in Texas or in Houston. Neither team has a shot to win it all though which he deserves. I’ll have to get back to you on my feelings of where he ends up signing. Until then, here’s a video montage dedicated to one of my all-time favorites no matter where he signs.

Lou Piniella

deserving candidates. The GM really put him and the the team in a position to win by acquiring guys like Rich Harden, Jim Edmonds and Reed Johnson. However, come playoff time Lou decided not to even play the productive Reed Johnson. Instead, not only did he play and commit to the struggling fan favorite, Kosuke Fukudome, but he batted him second. Plus I have disagreed with him playing Soriano at leadoff ever since we acquired him. I guess Lou is lucky they determine the winner of this award before he is given an opportunity for his team to get swept in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year. With that said, I wouldn’t have any manager but him.

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Only days ago I mentioned what I would do if I was running the Bulls. I was only able to get to one topic thus far, but so far I think I cursed my team. Imagine… a Chicago curse. I said the Bulls need to fix their crowded backcourt situation and now two guards are injured. First it was Larry Hughes, which was the number one guy I wanted gone, so I was actually thrilled about it. Now I have just learned our veteran point guard/shooting guard, Kirk Hinrich, will be out up to 3 months to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb. And if anything this proves why I was right about Kirk’s value. Because although we still have Thabo Sefolosha and Ben Gordon, they can’t play point guard. And since Rose is a rookie, he can’t play the full game just yet. So even though most teams would be fine, we are looking to sign another point guard that could back up Derrick Rose. It’s crazy to think that not too long I was talking about how crowded it was and now we are looking to sign another guard. Oh Chicago sports sure does have it’s cruel twists and turns.